


Vulnerability

by kinestheticpariah



Series: Black Hole High: 50 Prompts [1]
Category: Black Hole High | Strange Days at Blake Holsey High
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 08:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/684767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinestheticpariah/pseuds/kinestheticpariah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is completely different! The only thing that’s the same is that...” And then it hits her, and she speaks slower and quieter when she finishes, “people...can’t get close to me.”<br/>“Yeah,” he says. “Not even the people who care about you.”<br/>And then Durst walks in, and he turns away.<br/>She wonders if he might have been referring to himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vulnerability

**Author's Note:**

> Set during 1.03, _Magnet_.

“How are you doing, Josie?”

She raises a hand as Z turns to her, and feels a buzz and a crackling. She grimaces, looks down at her hand and sighs.

“Great,” she says, walking to a desk and sitting down on a stool. “What more could a girl want than to be able to power an entire city?” She takes a breath. “You know, having all this power was so much fun! I could control everything! Everyone. But...now that it controls me, it’s not fun anymore.”

“This is probably none of my business,” he says, fidgeting with his hands as he sits on a stool on the other side of a table, “whatsoever, but...you don’t seem to be very happy here at Blake Holsey, and it- and it’s like you don’t even want to fit in.”

She shrugs. “I don’t. My mom’s dumped me at lots of schools. What works best for me is being the outsider.”

“Ohh, okay,” he says, understanding. “I get it, I get it: why get close to someone when you’re only going to have to leave anyway?”

She shrugs, looks away. “Gotta go with what works.” She bites her lip.

“And...” He pauses to gather his thoughts, and continues, “How has that been working for you, Josie?”

“Great,” she says. “I’m totally in control.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Are you?”

And then she realizes what he’s trying to say, she realizes that he’s trying to imply that this ties into her being a human battery somehow.

“Hey, wait a minute!” she says. “This is completely different! The only thing that’s the same is that...” And then it hits her, and she speaks slower and quieter when she finishes, “people...can’t get close to me.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Not even the people who care about you.”

And when Durst walks in and he turns away, she wonders if he might have been referring to himself.

 

  
Later, she’s cleaning up the science room after doing her best to repair the damage to the second floor hallway. The sun is setting, and the orange glow cast through the window rivals her hair in its fieriness. He walks in, picks up a stack of papers from his desk, begins putting them in order as he sits down on a stool.

“I can’t believe you made me clean all by myself,” she says, pulling up a stool and sitting down across from him.

He smirks. “Did you not believe me?” he asks, and she reflects his smile once his eyes meet hers.

She looks down at the desk, fidgets with her fingers.

It’s quiet, him shuffling through papers, her lightly tapping her foot against the leg of her stool.

“Earlier,” she begins, “when we were talking about people not getting close to me. You said...‘not even the people who care about you’.”

He nods, not looking up. “I did.”

“Was that referring to the rest of the science club, or...” He looks up at her. “Was that about you?”

He shrugs. “A bit of both.”

She takes a breath. “So you...care about me?”

He puts down the papers, clasps his hands together. “Of course.”

A quiet laugh, then, “Why?”

“Why not?”

She sighs, rolls her eyes, hoping he doesn’t see it, but of course he does. “I mean...I’m not special or anything. Just your student.”

He takes off his glasses. “Are you?”

She looks down at her hands.

“Because I distinctly remember you using the word ‘friend’."

A sigh. She looks up at him, and he chuckles.

“You’re very intelligent, Josie,” he says. “I knew that as soon as you walked in, went on about molecular deconstruction, and...” She winces. “How a science teacher is...how did you put it? _Less complex than plants and chewing gum_?”

It’s quiet.

“You can’t hide behind snark and rebellion forever, Josie,” he says quietly, stands up and walks to the other side of the room, sets the papers down at the base of a skeleton model.

She finds herself following him, hoisting herself up onto a lab table and sitting there, dangling her legs over the edge. “I can try.”

He faces her, nods, shrugs. “Yes,” he says, “you can try.” He walks forward, until he’s less than a foot in front of her. “But sooner or later you’re going to have to accept that vulnerability is a fact of life. And it’s not always a bad thing.”

She takes a breath and lets it out, a long sigh.

“I think I can speak for the majority of the science club when I say that I care about you, and don’t plan on hurting you.”

She hops off the table and stands up, crossing her arms over her chest, looking up at him. “No one _plans_ on hurting anyone,” she says, “but it happens.”

He leans down, brings his face closer to hers, and whispers, “Then I’ll do my best to _not_ let it happen.” She meets his eyes and he smirks, and then he straightens up, picks a book up off a lab table, and says, “You should get going. I’m about to turn in for the evening.”

“At six?”

He shrugs, opens the book to a dog-eared page.

As she leaves the room, she’s nearly certain she’s not the only one who thinks “friends” is an understatement.


End file.
